Saturday, February 14, 2009

Another new toy to play with

So my tax money came back, and while most of it went to bills and savings, I allowed myself the luxury of one new toy.Feast your eyes on the Super Sniper 10x42 scope, shown here attached to a Savage 110 Tactical, special limited left-handed edition.

I've had the rifle for over a decade, but until now, I've never done anything with it other than mount a cheap Tasco World Class scope on it and banish it to the back corner of the gun safe. I hadn't really seen a need for the rifle all these years but I bought it way back when just because it was a left-handed tactical rifle. I'd frequently said back then that if a company ever decided to make a left-handed tactical rifle in .308, I'd buy it. Well Savage eventually made a run of them back in the early 1990's and I snared this one. Of course back then, I wasn't much of a bolt-rifle shooter and didn't know a thing about optics, so the rifle just languished.

These days, I've got plenty of time to shoot but not a lot of extra cash to drop on new guns. I also need to re-think my own tactical scenarios since I'm arguably not as fast or agile as I once was. That up close and personal CQB stuff is better left to the younger folks, ideally those with two natural feet.

I can still play those games, mind you--former employers spent a lot of time and money training me to do just that and I haven't forgotten or stopped training--but I think that it's time to revamp my tactics around skills and equipment that give me the edge via distance.

Sure, I can hose bad guys off or cover whole areas from a distance with the Browning MG, but it's really not the handiest tool in the safe for most applications due to it's weight and rather voracious appetite and the requirement for an assistant or two to lug it's fodder and keep it in action. While the Browning has it's niche, I really need something a little lighter for routine distance shooting.

So the Savage is now out of mothballs and it's been topped with this professional-grade scope. It's a fixed-power 30mm scope that's currently seeing much use in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as here on the home front with numerous police department SWAT teams. It's got a mil-dot reticle and nice target turrets--a perfect compliment to this great police-grade rifle that Savage crafted.

I took it out to the range today to zero the scope, and once on paper and dialed in for the M852 military match round that I have a quantity of thanks to a generous Uncle Sam, I had no trouble putting three and four round groups on the 100M targets that could be covered with a half dollar. And it doesn't hurt that this rifle shoots the 7.62x51mm cartridge. Thanks to the aforementioned Browning, I've got tons of it that I can use for low-cost practice.

Me likey.

I'm still getting used to this new tool, but I see a lot of potential here, plus I get to learn a new aspect of shooting that goes beyond the basic iron sight skills. With this set-up, I can theoretically hit head-sized targets out to 500m and consistent torso-sized target hits out to 1000m if I do my part. I figure that this'll give me something to do for a while and help keep me out of trouble while I work on mastering some new techniques.

No Lagniappe. You ain't getting it. You'll just have to keep dealing with the neighbor's cats the old-fashioned way...by chasing them like normal dogs do.

Well gee, Goddess...Maybe if he's do his job as an attack dog, I wouldn't need all of these replacements for him. He seems to forget that he's a police-trained former land shark these days. I guess I've spoiled him too much.